The four astronauts of the Artemis II mission were successfully extracted from the Orion capsule after landing this Friday in the Pacific Ocean and were transferred to the USS John P. Murtha of the United States Navy, where they will undergo post-mission medical evaluations.
Through its official account on X, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) confirmed that the four astronauts of Artemis II "have been successfully extracted from the Orion spacecraft after landing and are now aboard the USS John P. Murtha. The next step will be to escort them to the medical bay, where they will undergo post-mission medical evaluations."
The Orion capsule, named "Integrity," landed on Friday at 8:07 p.m. Eastern Time, about 110 kilometers off the coast of San Diego, California, and concluded a historic mission lasting approximately nine days, one hour, 32 minutes, and 15 seconds, during which the spacecraft traveled over 1.1 million kilometers in its journey to and from the Moon.
The crew consists of commander Reid Wiseman, pilot Victor Glover, mission specialist Christina Koch – all three from NASA – and specialist Jeremy Hansen from the Canadian Space Agency.
The transfer to the ship was carried out using MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopters from the U.S. Navy's HSC-23 Squadron.
Before being extracted from the capsule, the astronauts were attended to by four diving medical specialists from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One: Lieutenant Commander Jesse Wang, assigned to Koch; Master Chief Laddy Aldridge, assigned to Hansen; Chief Petty Officer Vlad Link, assigned to Wiseman; and Petty Officer First Class Steve Kapala, assigned to Glover.
These specialists opened the hatch of Orion, conducted initial medical assessments inside the spacecraft, and installed an inflatable raft called the "front porch" to facilitate the astronauts' exit.
The Artemis II mission, launched on April 1 from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center using the SLS rocket, was the first to carry a human crew around the Moon since Apollo 17 in December 1972, more than 50 years later.
On April 6, the spacecraft set the record for the greatest distance traveled by humans from Earth, reaching 406,773 kilometers, surpassing the 400,171 kilometers recorded by Apollo 13 in 1970, a milestone officially recognized by Guinness World Records.
The mission also marked several historical milestones regarding its crew. Victor Glover became the first African American to participate in a crewed lunar mission, Christina Koch the first woman to fly around the Moon, and Jeremy Hansen the first Canadian to do so.
After the medical evaluations aboard the USS John P. Murtha, the crew will be transferred to Naval Air Station San Diego, and subsequently flown to the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
The Artemis II mission is part of NASA's Artemis program, whose ultimate goal is to land on the lunar south pole with Artemis III, scheduled for 2027.
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